Two copies of the Chaucer that we previously described have now found new academic homes:

(1) The Ward–Watkins–Slocum–Edison copy (Census 2.194), sold at Christie’s on 7 December 2012 [see here], is now in the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto, purchased from Peter Harrington.

(2) The Slater–Gribbel–Schimmel copy (Census 3.179), offered for sale by Heritage Bookshop in 2012 [see here], is now in the University of British Columbia Library, purchased for $202,000 after a two-year fund-raising effort.

We are grateful to Dr. Yuri Cowan for passing this information on to us.

By coincidence, three copies of the Chaucer are coming up for sale next month (December 2015).

(1) Swann, on 1 December (lot 140), will be offering a quarter-linen copy in a modern clamshell case, with an estimate of $45,000–$60,000. The spine label and the binding show some signs of wear. (For an earlier sale of the book, see this post.)

[Update, 5 December 2015.] The book sold for $62, 500 (including buyer’s premium). Here is a link to the online catalogue. And we apologize for the wrong date in our original post: the auction was on 24 November 2015, not 1 December.

(2) Christie’s (New York), in its 8 December auction (lot 226), will sell another copy, this in a blue morocco binding by Sangorski & Sutcliffe with a cloth slipcase. The estimate is $4o,000–$60,000. (We listed this in our Census, 3.228, under unlocated copies.)

[Update, 9 December 2015.] This copy sold for $50,000.

(3) The most spectacular of the three copies is the one included in Sotheby’s (London) sale of 15 December, lot 82, inscribed by Morris “to R. Catterson Smith from William Morris July 7th 1896.” There are only a few copies of the Chaucer signed by Morris, who died a few months after its publication, and what lends importance to this particular inscription is that Robert Catterson-Smith was heavily involved in the production of the book: he revised Burne-Jones’s designs before they were handed over to the engraver. (On Catterson-Smith, see also this post and this one.) The pre-auction estimate is £100,000–£200,000. The binding is quarter-linen with a loose-fitting Morris fabric covering, reproduced below:

[Update, 5 September 2016.] Our apologies for being so slow in recording the following information. This extremely interesting association copy failed to find a buyer at the auction, but afterwards it was purchased from the family by Mark Samuels Lasner, whose collection is at the University of Delaware Library. He also acquired at the sale a substantial body of correspondence and other documents that shed new light on Catterson-Smith’s role in creating the illustrations for the Chaucer.

The Kageroubunko Bookshop in Tokyo has an interesting copy of the Kelmscott Chaucer for sale. The book has a Doves binding that is quite brown, as if the book had been in a fire. Sections of the binding, specifically around the spine, seem to have been professionally repaired. The contents, however, are totally undamaged and in impeccable condition. There are no marks of provenance in the book. It was bought by the present owner’s father in the 1970s, but the source is not known. Please contact us if anyone knows of a book of the above description. Could it be the damaged book we describe in our Census, 2.244?

Brian Johnson, son of Folger Johnson of Portland, Oregon [see this earlier post], has found the sales receipt for his father’s copy of the Chaucer from Philip C. Duschnes, 5 May 1945, for $950 (probably Census 4.400 and 4.412).

Lyon and Turnbull, (Edinburgh) sold a quarter-linen copy of the Chaucer on 10 September 2014 for £33,650. The book was originally purchased by Percy Scawen Wyndham. In a note on the front endpaper he writes, “This book is left to my son Guy — Percy Wyndham, July 1896.” In another hand: “This was sold in April 1942 by Basil Blackwell to W. R. Wilson of Rudge Hall for £148.”

¶ "I began printing books with the hope of producing some which would have a definite claim to beauty, while at the same time they should be easy to read and should not dazzle the eye, or trouble the intellect of the reader by eccentricity of form in the letters. I have always been a great admirer of the calligraphy of the Middle Ages, and of the earlier printing which took its place." — William Morris